Bedtime Stories: Lorelei Vashti, Romy Ash, George Megalogenis, Cate Kennedy and Laura Jean

Lorelei Vashti is the author of Dress Memory: A Memoir of My Twenties in Dresses (2014) and How to Choose Your Baby’s Last Name (2016). Her writing has been included in Best Australian Comedy Writing (2016), Mothermorphosis (2015), and the Women of Letters book series. She co-curates the Women of Letters events in Australia, and also runs Jacky Winter Gardens, a guesthouse and artist retreat in the Dandenong Ranges.

Romy Ash is a Melbourne-based writer. Her first novel Floundering was long-listed for the Miles Franklin Award. She is a writer of fiction and non-fiction. She has been anthologised in Best Australian Stories and Best Australian Essays.

Sydney songwriter Laura Jean is revered for the striking beauty of her music and the strength of her piercing, intimate lyrics. She has twice been shortlisted for the Aus- tralian Music Prize, and has recorded with Paul Kelly, The Drones, Rolling Blackouts and Grand Salvo. She has toured UK/Europe with Courtney Barnett, Aldous Harding and Jenny Hval, Aus/NZ with Aldous Harding and Marlon Williams, and played Meredith, Dark Mofo, Falls Festival, the National Gallery Of Victoria and Sydney Town Hall.

2018 album Devotion is a stunning artistic about-face from her previous folk-based work. Working with Melbourne producer John Lee, she created an enveloping, deep pop album like nothing she has done before. It has had superlative reviews from Pitch- fork, Gorilla Vs Bear, Noisey, NME and elsewhere, and made it into end of year lists for Spin, Apple Music, Idolator and more. Devotion was nominated for four Age Music Victoria Awards, three AIR Awards and shortlisted for the Australian Music Prize. Laura has also acquired some high profile fans such as Lorde and actor Brie Larson.

Devotion took Laura to UK/Europe in November 2018, supporting Courtney Barnett and performing at Sonic City Festival in Belgium, as well as playing headline shows in London and Brussels. She returned to UK/Europe in May 2019 with Aldous Harding.

Laura Jean signed with Chapter Music in 2011, her album A fool who’ll called “an uncompromising triumph” by Rolling Stone. In 2014, Laura recorded her self-titled album in the UK with producer John Parish (PJ Harvey, Perfume Genius, Aldous Hard- ing), with backing vocals by Norwegian star Jenny Hval.

Laura sings on albums such as Paul Kelly’s Spring and Fall, Feelin’ Kinda Free by the Drones, Hope Downs by Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever and Grand Salvo’s Sea Glass. She also features on three songs on the new Jenny Hval album The Practise of Love.

Cate Kennedy is the author of the highly acclaimed novel The World Beneath, which won the People’s Choice Award in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards in 2010. She is an award-winning short-story writer whose work has been published widely.

Her first collection, Dark Roots, was shortlisted for the Steele Rudd Award in the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards and for the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal, and is currently a text on the VCE Literature syllabus.

She is also the author of a travel memoir, Sing, and Don’t Cry, and the poetry collections Joyflight, Signs of Other Fires and The Taste of River Water, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Poetry in 2011. Her most recent book is her second collection of stories, Like a House on Fire (Scribe, 2012), which won the Queensland Literary Award and was shortlisted for the inaugural Stella Prize, and is also on the Victorian school syllabus, as a Year 12 English text. 

She lives in Castlemaine, Victoria, with her daughter, and is working on a new novel.

George Megalogenis has thirty years’ experience in the media, including over a decade in the federal parliamentary press gallery. His book The Australian Moment won the 2013 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Non-fiction ...